Very late starts not good

Last night's match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis started just before midnight and went to on finish just after 4.30 am which was a record late finish.

I don't think such a start benefits anybody especially the local audience and I think those kind of starts should be avoided.

I think its becoming a norm especially at this year's Open that matches are finishing well beyond midnight. One match that comes to mind is the one between Marat Safin and Baghdatis which finished
just after 2 am local time on a weekday.

Obviously the benefiters of this are the European audience but as for the local audience I think its becoming increasingly difficult to follow the matches night after night especially during the week.

Talking about the tennis itself it was a good win for Hewitt and he will now face Novak Djokovic and that
should be an exciting match and I hope it wont go beyond midnight again as its likely to be a night match again.

Roger Federer had a scare when he was taken to five sets by Janko Tipsarevic. It was an unusual sight to see Federer stretched so much at the Australian Open but he must be relieved that he won the match
and he will now face Tomas Berdych.

Finally, local favourite Casey Dellacqua lost to Jelena Jankovic. Dellacqua played very well in the first set and another upset looked likely but she then lost in a tie-break and in the second set she
had no match to Jankovic.